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MDaaS Global Secures $3M to Transform Healthcare Access across Nigeria

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MDaaS Global, a pioneering healthtech company and operator of Nigeria’s fastest-growing healthcare network – BeaconHealth Diagnostics, has raised a $3 million Pre-Series A round of financing.

The round was co-led by Aruwa Capital Management and follow-on investor Newtown Partners. It also landed additional follow-on investment from Ventures Platform, one of the company’s earliest institutional investors. This new round of financing brings MDaaS Global’s total investment to date to $6.8 million.

The additional capital will be used to further develop the company’s proprietary technology platform, BeaconOS, which it launched last year, and to expand its healthcare network to all 36 states in Nigeria through a mix of company-owned and affiliate clinics.

This strategic move propels MDaaS Global closer to its mission of democratising access to high-quality diagnostics and healthcare services across the continent.

With a focus on reaching underserved communities, MDaaS Global launched its first diagnostic clinic in 2017, providing imaging, cardiac, and laboratory services. Since then, the company has experienced remarkable growth, expanding to 17 locations across 10 states in Nigeria.

Through a combination of its technology backbone and distributed care network, MDaaS Global has served over 275,000 patients to date and currently supports over 1,300 healthcare facilities, companies, and HMOs who rely on BeaconHealth for their diagnostics needs.

BeaconOS, the company’s latest technology, serves as the digital backbone of MDaaS Global’s healthcare network, akin to a computer’s operating system, that optimises and connects their physical clinics, which act as the ‘hardware.’

Built on top of BeaconOS are a suite of applications designed both to streamline healthcare delivery at BeaconHealth clinics and to digitally integrate with the company’s diverse network of partner organisations.

Last year, MDaaS launched its first application, called Olewerk, for optimising diagnostic workflows, currently deployed across all of their 17 locations, and developed its first partner-facing application, Beam, which enables its corporate partners to seamlessly manage occupational health for their teams.

Speaking on the company’s technology strategy, CEO Oluwasoga Oni shared, “Years of operating within Nigeria’s healthcare system have given us a deep understanding of its challenges and points of friction. At MDaaS Global, we’re leveraging this experience to develop technology uniquely tailored to the African healthcare experience.

“BeaconOS isn’t just about solving our own challenges; it’s empowering our patients and partners with solutions customised to their needs and revolutionising healthcare delivery across Africa.”

With this injection of capital, the company will develop new applications on the BeaconOS platform that solve critical issues in the healthcare system:

An affiliate clinic portal will facilitate collaboration with partner clinics across the country, allowing for real-time patient referrals, seamless results management, and standardized quality control. This digital integration will enable rapid expansion of MDaaS Global’s clinic network and broader access to high-quality diagnostics services for communities across Nigeria.

MDaaS plans to build and launch digital integrations with Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), aiming to disrupt the traditionally manual and inefficient authorizations and claims processes.

Finally, the company is developing a patient-facing application that allows patients to book visits at MDaaS-owned and affiliate clinics, view their results, access follow-up care, and manage their health insurance enrollments – all from one central portal.

The need for improved diagnostics across Africa is critical. In 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa estimated that only about 30% of health facilities in Africa have the necessary equipment to perform basic diagnostic tests, with marginalised and underserved populations being the most affected.

Concurrently, the organisation identified the availability of and access to diagnostic and laboratory services as one of the key pillars to achieving universal health coverage.

Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, Founder & Managing Partner at Aruwa Capital Management stated, “We are thrilled to partner with MDaaS Global on their mission to revolutionise healthcare delivery in Africa. MDaaS’ track record of consistent and impressive growth, as well as their dedication to bringing high-quality diagnostics to high-need patients, resonated deeply with us.

“As a gender-lens investor, we are especially excited to support a company that is driving change for women across Nigeria – over 60% of BeaconHealth patients are women, predominantly of reproductive age – and MDaaS shares our commitment to building gender-diverse teams.”

Llew Claasen, Managing Partner at Newtown Partners shared, “At Newtown Partners, we invest in companies with the potential to make transformative changes in their industries, and MDaaS Global exemplifies this ethos. Since first investing in MDaaS in 2021, we have been continually impressed by their ability to grow in a challenging market, their insightful approach to technology development, and their ambitious vision for expanding healthcare access across Africa. We are excited to further support MDaaS in their journey and are confident in their ability to deliver value to patients and stakeholders alike.”

Oluwasoga Oni concludes, “Expanding our network across Nigeria is about more than just growth; it’s about democratising access to quality healthcare. With scale comes affordability, reach, and the ability to drive systemic change. At MDaaS Global, we’re not just building clinics or software; we’re building a healthier future for all Nigerians, and hopefully, all Africans.”


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Firm Reports a 48% Increase in Malicious Packages Threatening Software Supply Chains

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Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) experts at the 10th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2025 held recently, talked about supply chain attacks and reported that by the end of 2024 a total of 14,000 malicious packages were found in open-source projects, a 48% increase compared to the end of 2023. 42 million versions of open-source packages have been examined by Kaspersky throughout 2024 in search for vulnerabilities.

Open-source is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. Popular open-source packages include GoMod, Maven, NuGet, npm, PyPI, and others.

These are tools that power countless applications and help developers easily find, install, and manage pre-built code libraries, making it simpler to build software by reusing code others have written. Attackers take advantage of the popularity of these and other packages.

In March 2025, the Lazarus Group was reported to have deployed several malicious npm packages, which were downloaded multiple times before removal. These packages contained malware to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and deploy backdoors, targeting developers’ systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The attack leveraged GitHub repositories for added legitimacy, highlighting the group’s sophisticated supply chain tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT also found other npm packages related to this attack. Malicious npm packages could have been integrated into web development, cryptocurrency platforms, and enterprise software, risking widespread data theft and financial losses.

In 2024, a sophisticated backdoor was discovered in XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, a widely used compression library in Linux distributions. Inserted by a trusted contributor, the malicious code targeted SSH servers, enabling remote command execution and threatening countless systems globally.

Detected before widespread exploitation due to performance anomalies, the incident highlighted the dangers of supply chain attacks. XZ Utils is integral to operating systems, cloud servers, and IoT devices, making its compromise a threat to critical infrastructure and enterprise networks.

In 2024, Kaspersky’s GReAT discovered that attackers uploaded malicious Python packages like chatgpt-python and chatgpt-wrapper to PyPI, mimicking legitimate tools for interacting with ChatGPT APIs.

These packages, designed to steal credentials and deploy backdoors, capitalised on the popularity of AI development to trick developers into downloading them. These packages could have been used in AI development, chatbot integrations, and data analytics platforms, endangering sensitive AI workflows and user data.

“Open-source software is the backbone of many modern solutions, but its openness is being weaponised. The 50% rise in malicious packages by the end of 2024 shows attackers are actively embedding sophisticated backdoors and data stealers in popular packages, which millions rely on.

“Without rigorous vetting and real-time monitoring, a single compromised package can trigger a global breach. Organisations need to secure the supply chain before the next XZ Utils-level attack succeeds,” comments Dmitry Galov, Head of Research Center for Russia and CIS at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.


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NDPC Probes Suspected Data Breach in Examination Centres

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Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.

NDPC Probes Suspected Data Breach in Examination Centres

The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.

Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.

Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.

It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.

Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.

 

 

 


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Nigeria Among Hotspots as Kaspersky Warns of Rising Ransomware Threat in Africa

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Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.

Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.

Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.

“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.

Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.

Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.

“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin

The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.

Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.

“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin

Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.

To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.

 


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